After a leak over the weekend, Slipknot have confirmed that they will indeed be headlining their own music festival called Knotfest. Moreover, it has now been revealed that the festival will be staged on two separate dates in Iowa and Wisconsin in August.

Although Ticketmaster prematurely spilled the beans on the news of the Iowa show two days before Slipknot were set to make their huge announcement, the band officially confirmed the story this morning (June 4) via Rolling Stone.

“It’s all about having fun and bringing something to the world of rock & roll, bringing it to the standard it used to be,” says Shawn “Clown” Crahan. “It’s time for us to really engulf this idea known as Knotfest where we’re in control, we make a day devoted to our mindset, our ideas, the people that we want to play with, the people that we think our fans want to be around.”

Much like Metallica‘s upcoming Orion Music + More Festival, there will be plenty of unique and visceral experiences to take in at Knotfest. To complete the festival’s image as a “dark carnival experience,” there will be circus big-top tents, pillars of fire, amusement park rides, burlesque performers, fire-breathers, stilt walkers, drum circles made of junkyard cars, graffiti walls and even a Slipknot museum.

The festival also represents the strength for Slipknot to carry on after Slipknot bassist and creative mastermind Paul Gray passed away in 2010. “When the tragedy of our life happened, instead of going away we decided, ‘No, that’s not the right thing to do. Let’s go out, let’s share the way we feel with the people that feel like we feel,’” Crahan says. “So last summer we embarked on a tour, then we went to South America and opened up for Metallica in Rock In Rio. We just got back from Australia, and now we’re gonna embark on another fantastic one-of-a-kind tour, ending this thought process that’s been consumed by these feelings about a great loss.”

Crahan concluded by sharing his vision of Knotfest’s future. “It’s something that we want to be in control of so much that it can exist without us [playing].”

Knotfest will make its debut in Slipknot’s home state of Iowa at the Mid-America Motorway in Pacific Junction on Aug. 17, while the second show will take place in Somerset , Wis., near the Minnesota border on Aug. 18. Tickets go on sale Friday, June 8. For more details, check out the official Knotfest website and see the lineup breakdown by day below:

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